For Immediate Release

Date: September 14, 2010

A 41-year-old Roseville man has entered pleas of no contest to felony manslaughter charges in a drunken-driving case that resulted in two deaths.

Julian Manuel Martinez made the pleas Monday in Placer County Superior Court to two counts of vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated without gross negligence. He also pled no contest to a third felony charge – driving under the influence of alcohol causing injury.

Martinez was arrested by the California Highway Patrol on Nov. 1, 2009, after his vehicle drifted into oncoming traffic shortly after 1 a.m. on Baseline Road west of Fiddyment Road near Roseville and collided head-on with a vehicle driven by Manuel Espinoza, 65, of Sacramento.

Espinoza was killed. His son, David Espinoza, 27, was seriously injured and died on Jan. 26, 2010. Manuel Espinoza’s wife, Enedina, 62, was injured but survived the crash.